Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1937)
_r: “Door of Death" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter 'TMME and again I’ve told you boys and girls yarns that 1 —well—sort of proved that adventures happen to you most often, not when you go to some special place or on some special sort of trip, but in familiar, workaday places that you’re accustomed to visit every day of your lives. It’s a tale of subway adventure that we’re going to hear today—a story told to me by Matthew Creegan of Jamaica. N. Y. Matt left his home and went down into the Lexington avenue subway one day in 1921—Tuesday. November 13. to be exact about it—and before he got out of it, he had the most hair-raising experience his life has had to offer, either before or since. Matt started out to pay a visit to some friends of his who lived on Staten Island. He went down to the gubway platform, and, when the right train came along, he got in the first car. He stayed on the train until it reached South Ferry, and then he started to get off. His Foot Was Caught in the Door. Matt was the last passenger to get off that car. The door was closing as he went through it. As he stepped onto the platform with bis right foot, the door closed in on his left foot and held it tight. It was the sort of accident that happens once in a million years. You know how those subway doors are built and how they operate. The train can’t start until every door is fully closed and automatically locked in place. But in order to save people from being hurt by the doors as they slide shut, they've put a big soft cushion covered by a rubber ilap on the side of each one. That cushion has three or four inches of play in it. That three or four inches was just enough to catch a firm hold on Matt's foot, and shut and lock at the same time. Matt twisted around and tried to pull his foot loose, hut it wouldn’t come out. Then, suddenly, Matt's heart froze as a Jar shook the whole train. IT WAS STARTING! The closed locked doors had been the motorman's signal to go ahead! Matt let out a yell. There was a guard standing between two cars just twenty or thirty feet away, but he didn't hear. The train began to pull out of the station. Matt looked around frantically for something to grab hold of. If he could get a good grip on a post or a handle of some sort, he might wrench his foot loose. He might hurt that foot pretty badly, it's true. But even breaking it clean off would be better than being dragged and taking a chance under the wheels of the car. Dragged Along, Head Downwards. But there was nothing to catch hold of. Matt fell to the platform and was dragged along. The train moved on, picking up speed as it went. Matt let out one last yell as the end of the platform came moving up to meet him, but no one heard that yell, either. And then his body was falling—over the platform’s edge—down toward the tracks. In a split second he was HANGING HEAD DOWNWARD from that subway door, while the train bowled along toward the next stution. Matt is short of stature, and for the first time in his life he was glad ot it, for his heud did not quite reach the tracks. Had he been just a few inches taller, the top of his cranium, dragged over that concrete floor studded with hard wooden railroad ties, would have been battered to a pulp before the truin had gone half a block. As it was, that head of Matt’s was in dunger, from the various obstacles and projections that lined the side ot the track. Matt remembers trying to hold himself tight up against the side of the train to avoid those projections, as well as the pillars that went flashing by. The train was going full speed now. It was an express train, and Matt also remembers being glad the accident had happened to him downtown, where the express trains stopped at every station. The next station was Bowling Green, for the train had swung around the loop at South Ferry, and now was on its uptown trip. Would he still be alive when he got there? Matt wondered about that. Unconscious, But Saved. Something caught Matt’s coat—ripped it from his back. A few yards farther on, his vest went the same way. His shirt was being torn to ribbons. The roar of the wheels—terrifyingly close to his head—filled his heart with horror. That upside-down position was caus ing the blood to rush to his head. He felt weak from the shock of it all. Suddenly, HIS HEAD HIT SOMETHING. A great light Hashed before Matt’s eyes—and then he was unconscious. me train was slowing down now—though Matt didn’t know it. It was rolling on into the Bowling Green station. If the guard opened the door of the car, Matt’s foot would be released and he would fall to the track. But the guard didn’t open the door. There were no pas sengers waiting to get on up at that far end of the platform. Doors of other cars opened and slid shut again. But the one that imprisoned Matt’s foot remained closed. The train was ready to roll on to the next station—and there’s no telling what would have happened to Matt then—when a watchman, standing on the platform, saw the foot thrust through the door. He took a flashlight from his pocket and looked down into the crack between the train and the platform. There was Matt—DANGLING—SENSELESS. The watchman notified the guard. The guard opened the door, and Matt’s body fell to the track. The motorman blew the emergency whistle, and some men working near the station came and dragged Matt out. He woke up in the Broad Street hospital. Matt pulled out of it all right—and if there’s one thing he’s thank ful for it's that he’s a small enough man to fit in the space between a subway door and the ground without dragging. The big guys can have their six feet if they want it. “The bigger you are,” says Matt, “the more things you knock your head against.” D-WNU Service. Isle of Man’s Home Kule The Isle of Man has its own unique form of home rule. N o act of the British Parliament ap plies to the island unless expressly so stated in the law. The Court of Tynwald, one of the oldest legisla tive assemblies in the world, con sists of a lieutenant-governor ap pointed by the crown, and two chambers, the council and the house of keys. The twenty-four members of the latter are elected by popular vote, in which women share equal rights with men. All measures must pass both council and keys, and receive approval from the sov ereign. Limes Traced to India The lime is indigenous to India and was probably introduced into the Western hemisphere by Colum bus on his second vojuige. Some time later they were found growing wild in the F'orida keys. In ‘The Log of the Mayflower,” Azel Ames states that they were brought to Plymouth by the Pilgrims. Another record states that George Washing ton ordered a sloop captain bound for the West Indies in 1776 to bring back a barrel of limer, “if you find them good and cheap.” The Roman Empire The Roman Empire at its great est territorial extent from A. D. 98 to 117 covered the territory now in cluded in the following countries: England, Netherlands, Belgium. France, Luxembourg. Switzerland. Italy, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bul garia, Czechoslovakia, Liechten stein, Monaco, Austria, Hungary. Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Italian Iibia, Tunis, the hinterlands of Algeria and Morocco, Spain, Portugal, and all the islands dotting the Mediter ranean sea, the Adriatic, the Ae gean. the Ionian and the Black seas. General Grant's Dress General Grant went in citizen’s clothes to the Capitol when he was sworn in as President. He was of a practical mind in his dress, ex cept that he often appeared in public driving his own team, when he might have been mistaken for an ordinary horse jockey There was that in his demeanor peculiar to the greatness of the man—dignified sim plicity. A dress suit was to him a thing to be abhorred. Grant was at his best at the table with his wife and children. The Plight of Spain. Beverly hills, calif. —In the bloody task of utterly destroying herself Spain cannot complain that she lacked for hearty co-op eration on the part of some of her sister countries. Openly or secretly, half of the great European powers are contrib j uting to the bloody ruination, so that, | when the finish. 1 comes, they’ll have spoils or dubious | prestige or both and < that ill-fated land will be a burying ground and a deso ! lation. A fellow gets to wondering why this or that government chooses for an em blem some noble Irvin 8. Cobb creature when the turkey buzzard or the grave-rob bing hyena would be so appropri ate. Fierce winters and devastating floods may be curing us here on this side of the water, but at least we have been spared the affliction of having for our next-door neigh bors certain nations. • • 0 Kidnapers’ Ransoms. IT’S all well enough to pass an act making payment of ransom to a kidnaper a criminal offense—as though heartbroken parents would hesitate to pay ransoms to get their babies back, no matter what the penalty for so doing might be! And can you see any American jury convicting those parents? The au thor of the law is no doubt well-in tentioned but there is another law, called the law of human nature, which most surely would defeat his purposes. By the way, a person who should know what he’s talking about, tells me that three out of every four known kidnapers during recent years have been ex-convicts with records as repeated offenders. So, instead of trying to penalize agonized parents for obeying a na tural instinct, how about a snappy little law to curb certain parole boards which seem to delight in turning ’em out as fast as the courts can clap ’em in? • • * Optimism De Luxe. I LIKE the spirit of a gentleman in New York who started dredg ing operations in East river. He set out to dig a minimum of $4, 800,000 in gold and silver from the ooze, and to date has salvaged 96 cents, two rusty frying pans and a penknife—and is still probing. For gorgeous optimism I can think of but one case to match this. I was on the French Riviera one summer. They’d been shifting the railroad tracks along the Grand Corniche. This left a disused tun nel. So, week after week, a beard ed gentleman sat at one mouth of the empty bore with a sign over his head reading: “This property for sale.” When I left he was still there, waiting for somebody who was in the market for a second hand tunnel. • • • South American Explorers. OF RECENT years, those hardy adventurers who set forth to invade the last great unexplored area, interior South America, seem to follow a regular routine, to wit, as follows: First—They start off. Second—They get lost. Third—They are rescued. But wouldn't it save wear and tear and nervous strain if the rescue expedition went on ahead so it could get settled down in camp all nice and comfortable and be waiting for the explorers when they staggered in, exhausted from toting all those tons of material for future lec ture tours? The modern discov erer is gallant, but apparently has no more sense of direction than an egg-beater and seemingly could get lost on top of a marble-top table. Or possibly the tropic sun has an addling eilect on the human brain. Anyhow, since nearly always he is in an intact state when res cued, this would seem to indicate fiat the head-hunters of the Ama i zonian jungles are now getting | fussy about the types of heads they collect. m m • The Charms of Music. ACCORDING to a medical pro fessor in Pennsylvania, sam ples of whisky, when subjected to a musical sound treatment for sev en hours, produce a liquor which equals one that has been aged in wood for at least four years. But why get excited about this? I've known certain brands of classical music which, in one evening, have | aged a grown man to a point where he figures the present Christian era ! must be about over. Only a few weeks ago, being soft ened by the spirit of the approach ing holidays, I suffered myself to be lured to a Chopin recital and got jammed in and couldn't escape and finally staggered forth into the night feeling that Methuselah had little if anything on me. IRVIN S. COBB. ©—WNU Service. Time to Plan Sewing Program By CHFRIE NICHOLAS WHY not start your spring sew at-home program now and "avoid the rush?” Those who are in a position to know declare that women are turning back to the art of sewing at home with an enthu siasm such as has not been mani fest for years. Make-it-yourself clothes are not only a sure means of self expression, these enthusiasts say, but they offer the best answer to being really well dressed on a limited budget. And there’s the new spring fab rics! ’Nuff said! No further argu ment is needed. So here’s taking a look toward the new materials. Such ravishing colors, subtle tex tures and glorified patternings as the spring prints, the cottons, the linens, the piques, the gabardines, the shantungs, the silks, the satins and so on ad infinitum are flaunt ing is enough to entice anyone into bringing home rolls of yardage, and it follows like the night the day that you will eagerly and without delay be joining the sewing-bee clan. Of course when one starts in to do spring sewing the really sensible thing is to tackle the simplest gar ments first, made of inexpensive wash materials. So let’s betake ourselves to the wash goods sec tions and see what’s doing in the way of pretty prints or "what have they.” Never were sturdy cottons so novel, so amusing and so irresist ably likable. The best of it is, if you ask for the right kind you can get materials that are guaranteed against shrinking and that’s some thing not to be lightly considered. The new cottons and linens and other wash prints run the gamut of design from sportsy little designs for house, active sports and spec tator wear to gorgeous multicolored large florals that look handblocked, for evening dresses. There is a set of cunning classroom prints that are delightful for school and home wear. These prints are practical as well as youthful. History, geog raphy, algebra, even music print supply motifs for these clever prints. What could be more be fitting to wear during study hours and easier for the amateur seam stress to begin with than a two piece pajama outfit made of one of these interesting prints such as we are picturing to the left in the group illustration. The perky classroom print that fashions this attractive two-piece is pre-shrunk, which means that its snug neckband can not grow tight, tighter, too tight when pajamas go to wash. A house coat of cotton so fine it rustles like silk and washes without a tremor because it is sanforized shrunk, as in fact are the materials in each of the garments pictured, is shown to the right. An effective light navy blue is its color with white cord and buttons. Any girl can make herself such a garment, since it requires no close-fitting. Merely cut carefully by the right tailored pattern and take care to give a neat finish so that the mak ing will do credit to the lovely lus trous material. It is especially encouraging to home-sewing enthusiasts to know that smartly new fabrics that wash perfectly yet look formal enough for any type of wear have come into their own in a big way. The dress centered in the group can be very easily made, especially after you have mastered the making of the pajama outfit and the house coat as shown. This is a broad-shoul dered frock on the popular shirt waist dress order. It has crisp youthful lines and contrasting col or accents. Use swagger broad cloth, which is one of the shantung like new cottons now available in all wash goods sections and this frock will cost you next to nothing. The original style is developed in brown swagger broadcloth with belt, vest and neck trimmings of the same material in rust shade. Can be sent to the laundry week after week without loss of fit or style through shrinkage. © Western Newspaper Union. BRAIDED JACKET By CIIER1K NICHOLAS This two-piece daytime dress is of satin-back bemberg and acetate crepe, a material you will love to wear during the midseason and coming months. It is simply but very ertectively styled with all-over soutache braid trim on the jacket. The ascot and breast pocket hand kerchief lend bright color accent. NIGHTGOWN BIB IS WELCOME PRESENT By CHERIE NICHOLAS A most original and welcome gift is something that you make your self, giving that personal touch that means so much. A charming sug gestion is a nightgown "bib” made of dainty lace. It is so easy to slip on for breakfasting or reading in bed. and is that becoming you will be wanting to make another one, after your gift is duly sent, to keep for your very own. One we have seen is made of in sertion lace gathered and joined row-and-row to form a circle meas uring not less than twelve inches across. Satin ribbons were attached at the top and tied around the neck. There is great opportunity for orig inality in making these “bibs” for you can vary their shape, having them round, square, in triangle form or whatever strikes your fan cy. You can use lace edgings, or insertions or all-over lace and dec orate it in your own way. Thus you can express yourself to your friends and know that ycu are selecting a gift that is sure to delight any fern inina heart. Tiny Hat A small skull cap made of black satin has a wreathlike arrangement of white lacquered wings across the front. This is posed well off the forehead so that the birds come somewhere near the top of the head Give Hogs Range When Fattening Animals Produce Meat of Better Quality When Not Crowded. By H. W Taylor. Extension Swine Spe cialist, North Carolina State College.—WNU Service. Contrary to popular belief, a small, filthy, crowded pen is no place to fatten hogs. Crowded and filthy, the hogs cannot be as healthy and sanitary as they should to produce good, firm, wholesome meat. Overfat hogs do not produce the best pork. Hogs will gain well and keep clean if allowed a reasonable amount of range and given all the balanced ration they can eat, and some exercise is needed to keep them healthy. Since it is important that pork be produced as economically as is reasonably possible, it is a good practice to turn the hogs into a field where they can glean food that has been left from various crops. Fattening hogs should have, in addition to the field gleanings, all the corn they can eat and a protein supplement should be kept before them at all times. Fish meal or tankage, or a mix ture containing one-half cottonseed meal and one-half fish meal or tankage is recommended as a good protein supplement. Along in the early winter, growers should begin to think about their spring farrows, and see that the necessary equipment is available. Now is a good time to build a farrowing house. A plan for such a house may be obtained from county farm agents. Finds Cost Varies in the Production of Milk The cost of producing milk varies from month to month; it is highest in winter months and lowest in sum mer months, according to Dr. L. C. Cunningham of the department of agricultural economics at Cornell university. Based on yearly average costs, he says, January and February are the two months when costs are high est, and June and July months when they are lowest. During fall months, the cost builds up toward a winter high; during spring months it tends to taper toward the sum mer low. At the same time, the farm price of milk does not change correspond ingly. More variation occurs in the cost of producing milk than in the price received at the farm. In gen eral, he points out, the price of milk does not fall so far below the yearly average in the summer, nor rise so high in the winter months. If the yearly average cost is taken as 100 per cent, the highest pro ducing cost is represented by 128, and the lowest by 54, whereas the farm price of milk is represented by a high of 115 and a low of 84. Dr. Cunningham’s figures are based on a study of 437 dairy farms in four representative dairy sec tions of New York state. Good Storage One of the most important factors in good storage is maintaining the temperature in which each fruit and vegetable keeps best. Failure to provide this temperature shortens storage life- Proper amount of moist ure in the air of storage rooms is also essential. Other causes of spoil age may have come from storage diseases such as rots and molds. Then there are varieties of fruit3 and vegetables which are naturally poor keepers. For winter storage, potatoes keep best in piles small enough so that not more than three feet can be measured from the cen ter of the pile to the outside. Pota toes need air, and they should be free from loose dirt when placed in storage. Moist air helps in prevent ing potatoes from shrinking, espe cially if the air temperature is some what higher than that recommend ed. Frequent sprinkling of the walls in the storage room is beneficial. Notes of the Farm With the exception of two years In the past 25, the farm value of the United States potato crop was below average wheh the total yield was above average and the farm value was higher when the crop was below average in size. • • • Soy bean meal mixed with powdered skim milk has been dis covered by University of Minnesota scientists to be a good pollen sub stitute for bees. • • • The crop pest bindweed—or morn ing glory—defies drouth because its roots, that spread even as much as twenty-five to thirty feet, store up eo much food for hard times. • • • According to estimates, mastitis and Bang’s disease cause an aver age annual loss of $200 to every New York state dairyman. • • • Queen bees may be shipped by air mail. However, baby chicks are barred, since they can not stand the high altitudes. • • • Total slaughter of cattle and calves in the United States is ex pected to be smaller in 1937 than for either of the preceding two years. Ifouseiioia % # Ques/iohf To remove paint from cotton clothing soak the spot in a solu tion made of equal parts of am monia and turpentine. When spot disappears wash garment in soap suds. * • • Men’s patent leather shoes _ dancing pumps, evening shoes, and so on—will last twice as long if they are kept on trees and rubbed with vaseline after use. • * * Tablecloths that are no longer in use make good cot covers, bed spreads, or curtains if they are dyed to match the color scheme of the room. * * * Two parts boiled linseed oil mixed with one part turpentine will make a good furniture polish. ♦ • • When the teakettle becomes dis colored inside, it can be bright ened by boiling a clean oyster shell in it. * * • When laundering sweaters o r knitted blouses let dry on cloth or bath towel placed on a flat surface. No ironing is required. ♦ * * A boiled custard poured over peaches or bananas makes a deli cious dessert. Fairy Bread — Two cupfuls flour, one dessertspoonful sugar, one teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda, two teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, pinch of salt, one egg, half cupful milk (or a little more). Make into a nice light dough, and bake as a loaf in a slow oven. • • • Leather book bindings can be preserved by periodic treatments with an equal mixture of castor oil and paraffin. * • • Pie crusts will be flakier if a tablespoon of cornstarch is added to the flour used for each pie. © Associated Newspapers.— WNli Service. A Tangled Yarn Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections, as well as our bodies, are in a perpetual change.—Rous seau. I LUDEN’S Menthol Cough Drops 1. Clear your head 2. Soothe your throat 3. Help build up YOUR ALKALINE RESERVE 5/ Home and Virtues Home is the chief school of hu man virtues.—Channing. Don't Sleep When Gas Presses Heart If you want to really GET RID OF GAS and terrible bloating, don’t expect to do It by Just doctoring your stomach with harsn, Irritating alkalies and “gas tablets.” Most GAS is lodged In the stomach and upper intestine and is due to old poisonous matter In the constipated bowels that are loaded with ill-causing bacteria. If your constipation is of long stand ing, enormous quantities of dangerous bacteria accumulate. Then your di gestion is upset. GAS often presses ! heart and lungs, making life miserable. You can’t eat or sleep. Your head aches. Your back aches. Your com plexion is sallow and pimply. Your ! breath is foul. You are a sick, flcouchy, wretched, unhappy person. YOUH SYSTEM IS POISONED. Thousands of sufferers have found in Adlerika the quick, scientlfU way to rid their systems of harmful bacteria. Adlerika rids you of gas and cleans foul poisons out of BOTH UPP'^ *n lower bowels. Give your bowels a REAL cleansing with Adlerika. Ge rid of GAS. Adlerika does "ot or'P« —is not habit forming. At all Leading Druggists. . — your Nerves on Edge? Mrs. Dollie Rowland of 223 No. Cox Ave., Joplin, Mo., sard: "I suffered from feminine weakness a few years ago and my whole system seemed to be upset as a result — I wa* ‘on edge.' Many a time I had to leave my work and come home. I felt so weak and miserable. After using Dr Pierce* Favorite Prescription as a tonic, I ate more, slept better, and my nerves were calm.” Buy now of your druggist. [the cheerful cherub -- _ ■ — It’s fun to <30 to rrvetinees And sit in feirytand end then Come out end find the noisy street And see the seme old world ecein. ty-YcA*** n.n